Dubrovnik was the first city I fell in love with. After spending a week there with my family in 2003, I vowed to return with a one-way ticket. Like many times before and after, my love for Dubrovnik was painful. I was so enchanted with the Mediterranean joie de vivre, old ladies in cafés with small dogs in their laps gazing into the distance as if trying to recall their lost youth, stone and marble, the hustle and bustle of restaurants on Prijeko Street and red brick roofs shining under strong sun that I wanted it to become my life. It couldn't because I had to return home, but the images of Dubrovnik's summer decadence remained etched in my mind.
When I came back a few years later, I was disappointed. Stradun, the Old Town's main street and the soul of the city, wasn't nearly as wide as I remembered and there weren't many people despite it being the peak of the season. Early in the morning I sat in a café next to the bus station and the atmosphere was beautiful in the way only Croatian coastal cities are beautiful in summer, but even more than beautiful it was mediocre. Drinking warm ice tea and watching tired tourists getting off non-air-conditioned buses, I thought, "This isn't Dubrovnik." But it was. It was just different from the fairy tale I had made up during the time of my absence, yearning to return to the city that gave me memories I couldn't forget.
It was the first time I consciously learned that nostalgia romanticizes the past. This knowing has continued to accompany me through life (I also wrote about it here) and although we have grown close due to my habit of constantly returning to my favorite places, it always surprises me with the same intensity as that morning in Dubrovnik. It is now as much a part of me as my cities. Ironically, it also appears to be one of the rare static, never-changing elements in my life even though it deals exclusively with the fleeting.
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19 comments:
I hate when things are not as you remembered it. I had the same thing happen with Florence. The first time I went, I was blown away and the second time, it was filled with students from other countries and it seemed like a college down. I was so disappointed :-(
I know exactly what you mean. Nostalgia tinges everything in a rosy, dreamy, almost perfect like glow.
thanks so much for the comment you left me! love your blog. you're making my travel cravings itch soooo badly! x
bellissimoooooooo!
Hello Eva.
So "beautiful" said, Madame.
And the photo with the blue sky and pittoresque landscape is truly
"nostalgia".
Have a beautiful day and enjoy the rest of the week!
I agree that nostalgia romanticizes the past, it's funny how your mind only retain the perfect images and chooses to forget the imperfections when keeping a certain memory into your vault. I think the same can be applied to people too:)
this is an interesting post. i see you have a bit on italy - i will enjoy looking through...
don't you hate when things aren't the same as the way you remembered it? and you're right, nostalgia really does romanticize the past.
xx lue
Be sure Fairy Dubrovnik lives on. You will just have to find the right entrance next time. It seems you already found out nostalgia is not the right way. Try another!
nawww, the photo is amazing though x
so beautiful :)))
I love this post. Very insightful. xx
I love your writing style in this post - & I very much agree that we can romanticizes our past experiences & rose tint places we've once visited. That's why sometimes I feel great sadness leaving a person or place, because I know that despite wanting very much to one day return, I'll never recapture the experience I've just had.
Eva,
u potpunosti razumijem što želiš reći...zadrži ono sjećanje Dubrovnika iz 2003. :-)
N.
I was there this fall, just one day combined with a cruise! But unfortunately it rained! Would love to go back and give it a day in the sun!
What a great phrase: Nostalgia romanticizes the past. It is so true. We have to be careful about how we remember things because coming back can be hard, as you described. I really want to travel to Croatia.
xoxo
B* a la Moda
Amiable fill someone in on and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.
and I am soo happy that you are still visiting my blog! I have been too busy with life to post recently...
You are gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous, nothing could ever look "cheap" on you, but then again, thats how mums are!
love, lilly
Oh those golden years... the challenge is to find the same sweetness in today.
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